Quote:
Originally Posted by Igottago
But its not like they've never performed well at the NHL level, there was a time they were highly effective if not dominant as top line players. What happened? It's like they never mentally recovered from the Colorado series. It's really strange to see the top 2 players fall of a cliff like they have.
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It was never mental. It’s actually mostly physical. The Avalanche played the Flames perfectly top line perfectly and it’s been a recipe to shut them down for a loooong time now. This is what I’ve seen over the last several years:
How to beat Monahan and Gaudreau 101:
They mostly hurt you on the rush, so all you have to do is defend their counterattack you’ll effectively shut them down.
- Puck always funnels to Gaudreau
- Ok, don’t be aggressive on forecheck
- Drop your F2 and your F3 back
- Layer your backcheck
- Don’t attack Gaudreau because he can make you look bad one vs one
- Play it conservatively, keep him along the boards, don’t allow him to go east-west
- Keep a good gap on Monahan and __insert_RW__
- If Gaudreau tries to pass to Monahan, keep stick in lane to intercept
- If support is there, step up on Gaudreau just before or after the blue line to force turnover
DONE. Gaudreau and Monahan completely neutralized. Easy and predictable because the puck always ends up funneling to Gaudreau and management has done nothing to address this problem. Their final solution was to stick Josh Leivo, Dominic Simon and Brett Ritchie there. Well done guys, Gaudreau and Monahan’s even strength scoring has completely cratered and their trade value has completely fallen off a cliff from just 2 years ago, well done.